[pvrusb2] WinTV HVR-1975 (with official drivers) failing to load firmware

[Ian Goldberg]

On Sun, Sep 18, 2016 at 11:22:03AM -0500, isely at isely.net wrote:
> On Sun, 18 Sep 2016, Ian Goldberg wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, Sep 18, 2016 at 03:37:00AM +0000, Gary Buhrmaster wrote:
> > > Lastly, the 1975 is more like two devices than one.
> > > It has both the ATSC and DVB demods on board,
> > > and likely (although I have no personal experience)
> > > needs two sets of firmware blobs (one for each
> > > demod)?
> > 
> > It does come with two firmware blobs:
> > 
> > 16382 Mar  2  2014 v4l-cx25840.fw
> > 16384 Jan  5  2015 v4l-pvrusb2-160xxx-01.fw
> 
> There's one missing.
> 
> v4l-cx25840.fw is needed for the cx25840 chip (which handles analog 
> demodulation).  Earlier pvrusb2 devices (very early - the model 29xxx 
> series) had a different part which didn't need this firmware.  This 
> firmware, btw, is not specific to the pvrusb2 driver.  Any other v4l 
> device which uses this chip generally needs the same firmware.
> 
> v4l-pvrusb2-160xxx-01.fw is not a name that the "official" pvrusb2 
> driver uses but it probably corresponds to the Cypress FX2 firmware 
> needed in the HVR-1975 (this part is effectively the controller for 
> everything else).  This firmware blob is very specific to the device in 
> question - only the pvrusb2 driver will ever care about it.
> 
> To handle analog video (e.g. composite / s-video input or pre-digital 
> TV) there is another chip present which has its own processor and 
> performs the mpeg2 encoding step.  For digital video this part should 
> become a pass-through (memory is foggy there).  It has a required 
> firmware blob, that without it, the part will not work.

I put all the firmware files in the tarball into /lib/firmware, and for
simplicity, disconnected one of the HVR devices.

Now, it is capturing content aparently properly, so yay for step 1!

The blaster still doesn't work, though, and the Hauppauge people got
back to me, saying:

> There was no blasting support in the Linux driver.

Well, f***.  That makes these devices pretty useless to me, unless
either a) I somehow rig up a separate pair of blasters controllable from
USB, or b) blasting support gets added to the driver.

Does your 1950 driver support the blaster?  How hard would it be to get
their 1975 driver to support it?  (Again, I'm happy to help with kernel
hacking.)

> > [Note that I'm happy to help with some kernel hacking, if that's
> > useful for debugging.]
> 
> I need to analyze that patch hvr-1975 patch.  That's going to take some 
> time.  In the mean time, anyone that can help get its copyright status 
> cleared up will of course clear the way for it to be permanently merged 
> into the pvrusb2 driver, which in the end is really the right thing to 
> be done.  If anyone is talking to Hauppauge, please ask them to contact 
> me.  I've talked to them before, but the contact I used to work with 
> there has long since moved on to greener pastures.

Hauppauge specifically told me they cannot put me in touch with the
linux developers directly, but since it's your copyright, maybe you'd
have more luck?  I can put you in contact with the support person I've
been talking to, if you like.

   - Ian